The Road to (and from) ‘Recovery’: A Multidisciplinary Feminist Approach to Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding

Abstract

Feminist interventions in the practices and politics of peace and security at the international level have represented enactments of hope, of belief in the possibility of positive change resulting from specific actions in this arena. In this chapter, I draw together insights from disparate academic disciplines, including peace studies, international relations, social psychology, mental health care literature and conflict studies, to construct a framework through which to approach peacekeeping and peacebuilding — a framework that is organised around hope. This kaleidoscope of knowledge does not result in prescriptions for outcomes. Instead, I offer an exploration of work from which we might (hope-fully) begin to formulate a new, different approach to some old, familiar issues. I undertake such a project for two reasons: first, I hope that the discipline within which I locate my work (international relations) can be made to think differently about its priorities, agendas and exclusions by bringing insights from other disciplines into play as I seek to better understand the contemporary global politics of peace. Second, I hope that, through such critical interventions drawn from feminist ethics, the works that we produce can be made meaningful to those currently marginalised by the priorities, agendas and exclusions of international relations as a discipline and the world of/to which it speaks.